What's wrong with Vancouver Canuck fans?

[sonoman]

I am very saddened that once again we are unable to host a big event, lose and still act like a decent society.

What's worse, all the good that the 2010 Olympics did for Vancouver's image has pretty much been undone by the events of last night.

The city tried to reproduce some of the Olympics' atmosphere by organizing an outdoor viewing area, but I guess this should have been anticipated. Idiots will always be idiots.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

I feel bad for Vancouverites as a whole. Unfortunately things like this are perpetrated by thugs who use events such as these as excuses to commit criminal acts, using the mob mentality to their advantage. These episodes are not unique to Vancouver and now a days seem to take place whenever people gather for even peaceful protests.
The police and the media should be publicly posting/broadcasting the images of the rioters so they a) can be identified and apprehended and b) to publicly embarress anyone who for what ever reason would normally be a law abiding citizen but decided to take advantage of the situation.
My only other comment and I may be way off base but I'm not sure why the police weren't acting faster with more force. I saw one image on the news of a group of rioters milling around, breaking windows, burning a car, throwing objets, etc., and there were cops in riot gear and 10-12 cops on horses nearby. Then the cops on the horses simlply turned and walked off in the opposite direction. Maybe they got called elsewhere but on the other hand, you charge those horses into the crowd a couple of times and those rioters disperse pretty damn quick.

 

[Iroc]

VANCOUVER......MUCH LOVE as you deal with this unfortunate Black eye....

Realize it is but a few and not the city itself that brings this shame.....

 

[huggzy]

another sad part is the fact that it was all young people in late teens-early 20's. the youth (especially males) in this city is so warped. none of them have a conscience. all they care about is picking fights and accumulating tattoos. sure there was the retards doing the damage, but then what about all the other idiots who rather then getting the hell out of there (like a normal thinking person would do), decided to just stand there and take pictures. pure stupidity.

I'm going to agree with you. However I do think that there is a strong angry and frustrated undertone in our youth as well. As people in this thread are saying, you don't do this kind of thing "in your own house". For a lot of these kids Vancouver will never be "their house" - its owned by earlier generations and foreigners.

 

[huggzy]

That is just a silly comment.

Why?

People don't do this to their own homes...these kids don't take ownership of this city. They couldn't care less about it.

You're embarrassed by what happened here because you do take ownership of the city like many other people here do. I think that this has a great deal to do with the psychology behind the kind of thing that happens in these kinds of things.

 

[Ned Flanders]

Total Embarassment

I work by the BOM building and by 4 pm yesterday I knew it was time to get the hell out of Dodge. There were a lot of younger males who were already inebriated and belligerent wandering around. It didn't take psychic abilities to see what was going to happen.

The police should have been deployed in large numbers before the event in riot gear, and as soon as things started, the thumping should have commenced!

I wouldn't view these people as fans as much as thugs that attach themselves to crowds so they can vandalize stuff with relative safety.

 

[vancity_cowboy]

Boston does not riot, cause their teams win a title every other year.

boston doesn't have riots because they have the national guard down there... when somebody tries to start any goonery they get their frikken' head beat in - end of riot...

 

[vancity_cowboy]

What's worse, all the good that the 2010 Olympics did for Vancouver's image has pretty much been undone by the events of last night.

The city tried to reproduce some of the Olympics' atmosphere by organizing an outdoor viewing area, but I guess this should have been anticipated. Idiots will always be idiots.

I feel bad for Vancouverites as a whole. Unfortunately things like this are perpetrated by thugs who use events such as these as excuses to commit criminal acts, using the mob mentality to their advantage. These episodes are not unique to Vancouver and now a days seem to take place whenever people gather for even peaceful protests.
The police and the media should be publicly posting/broadcasting the images of the rioters so they a) can be identified and apprehended and b) to publicly embarress anyone who for what ever reason would normally be a law abiding citizen but decided to take advantage of the situation.
My only other comment and I may be way off base but I'm not sure why the police weren't acting faster with more force. I saw one image on the news of a group of rioters milling around, breaking windows, burning a car, throwing objets, etc., and there were cops in riot gear and 10-12 cops on horses nearby. Then the cops on the horses simlply turned and walked off in the opposite direction. Maybe they got called elsewhere but on the other hand, you charge those horses into the crowd a couple of times and those rioters disperse pretty damn quick.

yes we had as many people downtown during the olympics, but we also had police from every major city in canada, and waiting quietly in the background we also had the military. we also had a major undercover effort to detect and prevent potential riots from happening

what did we have last night? 100 foot screens authorized by idiot beaurocrats and politicians, and we had the BADLY outnumbered VPD. eventually rcmp arrived from burnaby, and these guys were the real thing, that's when control started to be exerted. VPD could only watch until reinforcements arrived

i wouldn't be surprised to see some pretty draconian policies put in place as a result of last night

 

[BrokeBastard]

I largely blame the laziness of parents. All those hooligan male adults acting without responsiblity. Those parents should be footing the bill for those caught.

 

[wolverine]

All I can say is that next time the Canucks reach the Cup final 20 years from now, they better call in the military.

 

[Cock Throppled]

I'd like to know just what the police "plan" was.

To me it looked like let the rioters get tired from overturning cars, setting fires, breaking windows and looting; then hope they go home quietly.

I didn't see any pro-active policing. Why were plain clothes officers scattered throughout that crowd nabbing instigators before they got started or at least feeding information as to where trouble was starting? A crowd feeds off its own energy. Allowing one thing energizes a crowd and it spirals out of control.

And who was the genious who told the fire department to stay away. Water on a crowd is a great defuser. Water cannons are used world wide for crowd disbursement. Didn't Vancouver buy some expensive crowd control vehicle? Where was it?

One of my places was damaged well away from downtown. There were destructive crowds roaming at will all over the city. They have no fear of police, peers or courts.

 

[wilde]

The police, from what I saw, were badly outnumbered and without their riot gear on which makes those bottles and bricks hurled at them that much more dangerous. Once the first car was flipped it was over. Nothing short of a strong show of force will break it up and the backup from other agencies did not arrive until about 10:00pm. I don't think anyone can point the finger at the police (except the usual internet tuf guys) they did what they could under the circumstances. What bothers me is that we spent millions of dollars on security on these G7/G20 summits but we can't properly prepare for a hockey game that many have predicted will have history repeating itself.

 

[Cock Throppled]

Well fuck you, you misinformed Mr Expert. Did you have anything damaged? Did you see the police response? A friend who owns a store on Robson called police when rioters were looting his place and no police even came down the street for over two hours.

I'm not criticizing any police officer individually - I'm criticizing Chu and city officials who claimed they had a plan and there was no sign of any plan on the ground. Saying they controlled it in three hours is just wrong - the trouble went on for hours after 11:00.

A plan is one where you head off trouble, eliminate the ring leaders and respond to whatever happens immediately - not allow cars to burn for hours, watch brawls in the street, see people injured and massive property damage and leave rioters alone when they burn police cars and taunt the police. Calling Abbotsford police at 10:00 and have them come all the way from Abbotsford rather than have them on standby closer and then not be able to communicate with Vancouver police radios is NOT a plan.

 

[CJ Tylers]

Personally, I believe that the media holds a certain degree of responsibility here. Right from the get go, they brought up the specter of the '94 riots. Every time, it was "oh, I hope there's no riots!" *wink wink nudge nudge photo op!*

But seriously, the media played up the aspect of the riots and put them into the forefront of everyones mind. That essentially primed receptive people to the idea of a post game riot. Couple that with the people who went down with the intent of causing trouble/looting, and you have a reciepe for disaster.

 

[deathreborn]

once again this shows what an incompetent puddle of corn shit gregor robertson is as a mayor. he handcuffed the police to save a buck. why? oh that's right, he blew 3 million on useless bike lanes. come november i hope the people in vancouver remember this vividly and get that useless scuzz out of office.

 

[wilde]

As I was watching the footage last night, a thought came to mind. A big difference between 1994 and 2011 is the prevalence of cellphones. I wonder what the parents of some of those kids captured on film are thinking? If I had a kid there, I would have ordered him/her to get the fuck out of dodge once the shit hits the fan or risk being grounded for the rest of the summer.

 

[Cock Throppled]

I'd still like to know what Chu's "plan" was.

Comparing a G20/G8 riot to a hockey crowd riot is like comparing apples and oranges.

G/20 riot attracts hard-core, professional anarchists from around the world. Demonstrators don't include families.

Blaming the media is not fair. The media just do their jobs. The rioters were showboating for each other and to post on facebook. Look at the riot scenes and almost everyone was on their phone. Who the fuck were they calling?

Individual police might have wanted to do more, but were obviously under orders the be restrained to the point of just taking abuse and watching people hurt each other and damage property.

The riot did not end after 3 hours - it easily went on for another two hours. Leaving the troublemakers a free hand to keep ramping their activities up is not a success in my book. Friends were beaten when they tried to protect their property. There was no protection offered to citizens in that area during the riot.

This isn't a one-time thing - businesses face loss of business, huge repair bills, replacing stock, and dealing with insurance. It affects businesses for weeks or months.

 

[Cock Throppled]

Is that right? Guess you may wanna listen where some of these "hockey crowd" you speak of came from. The people who started this weren't hockey fans you buffoon.

Not all hockey fans were rioters and not all rioters were hockey fans, but you can bet MOST of the rioters were hockey fans.

Ever watch the ads during a hockey game? The advertisers go for the party hardy, beer drinking, young male demographic.

If you were effected you wouldn't think Chu' s plan was very successful. And I include the city in my criticism.

I agree the injured cops and innocents are more important - but there was NO plan to mitigate any of that.

How are you determining the "plan" was successful? because Chu said it was? What's he supposed to say?

 

[Cock Throppled]

Have you watched the video of the looting of The Bay, London Drugs and Sears? The professionals are there with fire extinguishers to lay down concealment when they see a camera documenting the organized theft going on. Care to bet on Thrift Markets being well supplied with goods from The Bay, London Drugs and Sears?

Actually, some of those rioters were mis-identified by media. I was told by an employee at LD he was there with friends using fire extinguishers to try to keep people from entering. I saw people who may have been black bloc, but the vast majority were hockey fans out for entertainment. Still no comparison to G20 participants.

I agree it's a sign of the times police might be afraid to be pro-active. The criticisms they receive caught on camera are usually out of proportion to what needed to be done. Taken out of context harsh actions can look worse than they actually are.

 

[storm rider]

Every NHL city is like that when that city lose the Finals!

This is not accurate....in 2004 when the Flames went to the final game the "Red Mile" did not degrade into a riot with people bent on vadalism and theft....there was some bad noise but there was no riot...actually there was more bad noise in game 6 when the winning goal by Calgary was waived off.....given that if the goal had not been waived off the Stanley Cup would have been ours.

SR